Using Social Media for your Blog

I’ve spent the last couple of days working on the start of a brand for my blog and focusing on my blog social media. This has involved a lot of research and has not been quick – in fact, I’m still working on it.

Social Media

First, I thought about social media. I have accounts for Twitter, Instagram & Pinterest already but I thought about how I could be more effective in gaining traffic to my blog.Updated April 2018.
On my twitter account, I have over 7,700 followers & I have found that this account gives my blog the most traffic. I talk to other bloggers, get involved with chats & share my blog posts. This is the one I find easiest in growing & building effective relationships with people. You have to talk to people on twitter to grow, and don’t play the follow to unfollow game, it only gets you blocked by most, I know I block repeat offenders!
Some people gain a LOT of traffic from Pinterest and at first, I thought it was because they were more stylish than me (which might be the case) but you CAN grow your Pinterest without being ‘Pinterest-worthy’. I have been joining different boards such as travel & mental health which is helpful as it shares your pins with everyone following the board owner too, so even if they’re not following you, they can still see some of your pins. All of my pins are linked from my blog or Instagram meaning that if they click on the pin, they can be redirected to where I have linked and this has started bringing in more traffic. My favourite board is ‘Blogger’s Best‘ which was set up by Passion Projects and I love it because you have to share another person’s blog as well as your own so you can find lots of new people to interact with. Also, create a board just for your blog & don’t spam it. I only use it for my blog post headers! I currently have over 500 followers but a monthly reach of 4,400! Using long rectangular pins is better as they’re more ‘pinnable’.
With Instagram it’s a little trickier. I don’t get much traffic from this but I’m open to advice & it is gradually increasing.! My blog account has over 2,100. I switched my instagram account to a business account which means I can view insights. Now, I can see how many people my photos have reached, which times are busiest & how many time people clicked on your profile because of that picture. This will be useful in knowing the best time to post & which types of pictures get the most interest.Note: to turn your Instagram account into business, you need a Facebook page.
I also have a Facebook page. I originally set up the page to keep friends & family updated without over sharing on my personal account. By getting involved in blogging Facebook groups I am starting to get more Facebook traffic though I am finding it a slow grower (even though engagement is good).
I also set up a LinkedIn profile. As I am a qualified Primary Teacher, I set that up as my job, but I also added Blogging at Bexcapades as a job. This is proving a lot of work to set up, but I know it’ll be worth it as it’s one of those networking sites that you will use for your whole career. I found a really detailed blog article by Kirsty Leanne Digital which I followed completely to set it up.

Advertising

I have recently started advertising bloggers on my social media following (of over 11,600 followers) as I found that lots of people wanted help with their organic reach. If you are interested in advertising with me, find out more information here.

Branding

I updated the theme of my blog (again, I know!) which I’m going to stick with for a while! I also created a header & a logo (which I use for all of my blogging social media accounts).
For my logo, I wanted to use purple & for it to show what my blog is about. It shows my blog name, tag line & a plane taking off. The purple represents the colour I associate with mental health & the aeroplane is for my predominant travel focus. I created it using Canva.
I also used Canva for my header & chose a photo I took during sunset on Lamai beach in Thailand this year. It fit my colour scheme of purple as the sky was pink and the mountains look purple in silhouette. I made sure my blog name ‘bexcapades’ was the biggest but also included my tag line: travelling with anxiety.
Hopefully, as time progresses, I can get my brand out there and start working & collaborating with other bloggers and companies. I will keep you all updated.

19 thoughts on “Using Social Media for your Blog”

This wasn’t your usual but it was quite helpful. It was also a different perspective for me, who has a heard a lot about follow-unfollow strategies (which I tried and quickly dropped). I still haven’t figured out pinterest yet…working on that.
Maybe some day I’ll try to “monetize” but I’m really just blogging because I a writing bug. I just want folks to read my blog. Thanks for the insights!

I know it’s different, I figured I’d put it out there as i know a few people will probably be in the same boat as me where they want to grow & I know I find social media the easiest to understand! My Pinterest traffic is slow but steadily rising each week, that’s my main focus at the moment, once the traffic is steady, it runs itself but it’s a lot of time to get to there 🙈

This is so useful! thank you so much for sharing! I’ve through about switching my instagram to a business account too, but didn’t quite get what it would mean for me. Is the only difference that you get insight in your views (like analytics)? And do you have to pay for a business account?
xoxo Annaleid